This blog exists to support liberatory collectivist activism that is anti-patriarchy, anti-colonialism, and anti-capitalism. It also seeks to center the experiences, theories, and agendas of radical and feminist women of color.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Across the World Wide Web and also offline, I find men with this view: that ONE MAN being wrongly imprisoned for a rape charge is WORSE than a hundred women being raped...

I think that blogpost title tells us A LOT we ought to know about how many, many men (millions, in fact) view the value of men's physical freedom relative to the right of women to be socially, interpersonally, psychically, politically free of rape and the possibility of rape.

Add to that the reality the reality that most rape of women by men is never reported. Add to that the fact that most reported rape is never prosecuted. Add to that the fact that most prosecutions do not result in jail time or imprisonment for the rapist.

The number of rapes that are not reported, combined with the number that are, is so exponentially greater than the number of women who falsely accuse men of rape. LET ALONE the number of men who are unjustly IMPRISONED for raping ANYONE.

Let's be clear: maybe one in a million men are imprisoned falsely for rape, if that. One in four women are raped or sexually assaulted, generally, across ethnicity. One in three Indigenous North American women will be raped--by a man, mostly by a white man. Do the fucking math and determine for yourself who is being treated unjustly.

So how many men are politically organised to stop men from being falsely accused of rape, or to demand the prosecution of women who falsely accuse men of rape? And how does that figure compare with the number of men who are politically organised to stop the rape of women by men?

Let's consult Google:

"men against rape" (Google search results): Results 1 - 10 of about 93,200 for men against rape.

Given that many men's anti-rape groups are fighting to stop the rape of men by men, or the rape of children by men, including boy children, we have to conclude that men will work for their own unjust interests, rights, privileges, entitlements, access, and power to preserve the right to rape by highlighting as "significant" the relatively non-existent phenomenon of men falsely accused of rape. They will do this far more than they will work to stop men who rape women, or to challenge men in other ways in order to bring about an end to the prevalent phenomenon of the rape of women by men.

Next, let's consider how racist and classist the criminal justice system is, and that white rich men are far less likely to be imprisoned for any form of crime against humanity than poorer men of color (and poorer white men too, for that matter).

Taken together, what we have is a set of white supremacist, heterosexist, patriarchal capitalist societies--run by wealthy white het men--that protect wealthy white het men's right to rape women. These same societies are more willing to oppose the rare prosecution of men who are falsely accused of rape than to oppose the rampant and true rape of women by men who are not charged, convicted, or imprisoned, including by the least non-falsely imprisoned group of rapists: wealthy white het men.